Stimulus | Helping Doctors overcome burnout, excel in leadership, and unlock their most fulfilling careers Rob Orman, MD

We wear many hats in life, and one of them can become disproportionately large: our professional identity. Don’t get me wrong, being a physician is amazing and the associated identity is imbued with meaning and purpose. The challenge comes when identity becomes calcified and too narrowly defined. When that happens, it can limit us. 
In this episode, we delve into the diverse and often unforeseen roles of a physician, the constraints placed on one's identity due to deeply entrenched beliefs about our own capacities, strategies to overcome limiting beliefs,  how the term "just" can undermine one's potential, the significance of embracing alternate identities, and the common thread between Ted Lasso and Deion Sanders. 
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Guest Bio:
Pranay Parikh is a principal of Ascent Equity Group, a real estate, private equity company, predominantly for physicians with over 310 million in assets. Pranay is also the purveyor of the Passive Real Estate Income Academy course, which teaches doctors to be able to find vet and invest in real estate syndications; part of the Passive Income MD podcast, and most recently The Effective Living Formula Course - doing more of what matters. (here's his free webinar) On the side, he is a hospitalist, nocturnist, husband, and father of two young sons.
We Discuss:
You are more than ‘just’ a doctor Pranay’s system for how he approaches life An over-the-top identity exercise What assumptions do you make about yourself? Unpacking the word 'Just'  Exercises to Overcome ‘Just’  The Power of Alter Egos Belief impacts outcome  

It’s tempting to think of accepting the reality of the moment as acquiescence or giving up, but the opposite is true. Awareness and acceptance of what’s going on inside of you and around you is a recipe for equanimity. With this equanimity, you are able to operate at a higher level as well as be an effective agent for change in the system. Sounds like a paradox!
In this episode, we look at mindfulness as a tool for addressing and mitigating burnout, fostering self-compassion, promoting a sense of well-being, squashing imposter syndrome, restoring autonomy, working through our ‘specialness’, getting out of a scarcity mindset, doubting self-doubt, and getting charts done so you can get home on time (yes, it’s true!) 
For complete show notes, click here. 
 

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Sign up for our newsletter here Read our last newsletter “The Kids Who Hated Math Have Something to Teach Us” here
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To learn more about 1 on 1 coaching, start here
  Guest Bio
Gail Gazelle, MD, MCC is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and Master Certified Coach for physicians. She is the author of Everyday Resilience. A Practical Guide to Build Inner Strength and Weather Life’s Challenges, and most recently Mindful MD. 6 Ways Mindfulness Restores Your Autonomy and Cures Healthcare Burnout. To hear more of Gail, she’s the featured guest on Stimulus Episode 27. 

 

We Discuss
What the heck is mindfulness anyway? The thinking mind can be overwhelming. Mindfulness training helps us gain autonomy. Apps and other methods to assist with meditation and mindfulness. Mindfulness helps in gaining awareness and insight into one's inner dialogue. Recognizing that we are not our thoughts helps restore autonomy and cure burnout. Imposter beliefs contribute to burnout and prevent recognition of our own accomplishments. Steps that can be taken to challenge and overcome imposter beliefs. Combatting the "special syndrome" experienced by many physicians? The role self-compassion plays in reducing burnout and improving motivation. Shifting from inner criticism to inner ally. How does the focus on comparison affect healthcare professionals' well-being? Practicing gratitude and abundance mindset shifts physiology and wellbeing Emotional reactivity and resistance to accepting reality impact healthcare providers. Mindfulness helps healthcare providers appreciate the present and avoid a "milestone mindset" There's often confusion between acceptance of the moment and acquiescence to an external issue that you want to change  

Investigative journalist Scott Carney is our guest as we dive into: Why you might want to consider getting in cold water, the technique for staying in cold water for more than a few seconds, how to take your first step into the freeze, brown fat, the power of lightly held beliefs, how people are dying with the Wim Hof method, and the law of speedy gains. 
 
Shield yourself from bullsh*t Want to re-spark the joy in your practice, get home on time, unstick what’s feeling stuck, or even just build a shied for all the BS you face in a workday? Start here to learn more about 1 on 1 coaching. You’ll be glad you did.
 
Guest Bio: Scott Carney is an anthropologist, investigative journalist, author, and a seeker of both the fringes of human experience and the core of what makes us human. Scott has written four books to date, including The Vortex, The Enlightenment Trap, The Red Market,  What Doesn’t Kill Us, and The Wedge, and produced the recent film The Rise and Fall of the Wim Hof Empire.
Scott’s work has been featured in many magazines — Wired, Mother Jones, Playboy, Foreign Policy, Men’s Journal, and National Public Radio. He has won the Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism and is a multi-finalist for the Livingston Award for International Journalism. You can find all his goodies on his website.  
Check out our new (free!) Mini Book Scripting Your Least Favorite Conversations
 
We Discuss: 
The mindset method for staying in cold water Detailed steps for entering cold water The benefit of breaking through walls and physiologic control using ice water exposure The power of lightly held beliefs Cold exposure as a lightly-held belief People are dying using the Wim Hof method The Bitcoin Enema Does Brown Fat matter? The law of speedy gains  

The Drama Triangle identifies our roles in dysfunctional interpersonal dynamics. It can be a potent tool for understanding conflict and miscommunication within personal and professional relationships. In this episode, we break down the core components of the Drama Triangle, strategies to disentangle ourselves from ‘drama’, and explore practical tools to identify and navigate the dynamics of our own interactions.

Check out our new (free!) Mini Book on Scripting Your Least Favorite Conversations
  Kickassery
Want to re-spark the joy in your practice, get home on time, or just unstick what’s feeling stuck? Start here to learn more about 1 on 1 coaching. You’ll be glad you did.

 

In this podcast, we discuss:
What is the Drama Triangle? The Empowerment Dynamic Recalibrating from drama to neutrality

How do you make important decisions? Do you go by your gut, some sort of defined process, or perhaps a combination of the two? When we're offered an opportunity to participate in something that seems amazing, it’s almost always associated with a cost. That cost is time. Every ‘yes’ is accompanied by even more ‘no’s’.

In today’s episode, we take a look inside a real coaching session that addresses just this scenario. Our client is a physician who wants to develop a decision-making process so that he can derive meaning from his professional life and not take on projects or jobs that on the surface sound intriguing but may end up draining rather than fueling him. 

Client Bio: Josh Russell MD is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Urgent Care Medicine and is double board certified in Palliative Care and Emergency Medicine. Apart from his clinical practice, he is a writer, educator, entrepreneur, and trivia enthusiast.
 
For full show notes visit our podcast page

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Are you often quick to give advice? You're not alone, but sometimes our advice may not be as helpful as we think. In this podcast episode, we explore the concepts of the advice trap and humble inquiry, which shift communication from telling to asking and encourage us to stay curious a little longer.
 
For complete show notes with way more detail than you see on this podcatcher summary, click here. If you’re not into that kind of detail, have an aversion to websites, don’t really care about show notes, or are contrarian in nature, by all means, do not click here. 
 
Guest Bio: The late Edgar Schein, PhD. was a renowned figure in the field of organizational psychology, with significant contributions to the understanding of organizational culture and leadership. As a Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, his academic work spanned several decades, educating countless leaders and thinkers. Holding a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Harvard University, Dr. Schein was widely recognized for his groundbreaking theories on corporate culture and process consultation. His seminal works, including “Humble Inquiry”, "Organizational Culture and Leadership" and "The Corporate Culture Survival Guide", continue to be pillars of study in the field. Dr. Schein’s dedication and influence earned him prestigious accolades, including the Lifetime Achievement Award in Workplace Learning and Performance from the American Society for Training and Development. His insights continue to shape modern approaches to organizational development and leadership.
Kickassery: Want to re-spark the joy in your practice, get home on time, or just unstick what’s feeling stuck? Start here to learn more about 1 on 1 coaching. 
 
Mentioned in this episode: 
Our recent newsletter on communicating with patients 
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Freebies with documentation phrases and tips on calling consults Here
The Advice Trap Link
Humble Inquiry Link
 
Registration is open for the FlameProof Course This is a small cohort six-month course specifically for emergency and acute care clinicians that will build and strengthen tools for career longevity, strategies for well-being, life balance, and so much more. Learn more here. 
 
In this pod, we discuss…
We love to solve problems, and that can be a problem The Advice Trap Why even good advice can be bad The paradoxical pitfall of how we see our value The demotivator Where this comes up in coaching You are in the coffee shop with your best friend Hearing yourself think Humble inquiry It’s not just to fill the awkward silence Asking questions is not straightforward  Critical skills for implementing humble inquiry The take-home challenge Ed Schein quotes from this episode